Botany and Ormiston Times : Botany and Ormiston Times Thursday March 24 2016

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www.times.co.nz
Botany and Ormiston Times, Thursday, March 24, 2016 — 3
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■■ By Marianne Kelly
Just after Christmas Louise and
Darren Clark headed for the
USA knowing it was their last
chance to conceive a much-wanted
baby.
Now the two who left are three,
returning to Botany Downs with
baby Clark onboard and scheduled
to be born next October.
The six weeks the couple spent
in Nashville, Tennessee were
dominated by IVF treatment at the
Centre for Reproductive Health,
along with some welcome sight-
seeing down time. Mr Clark says
they were consumed and fully
involved with the experience while
they were there.
“Now we are back it’s a bit surreal,”
he says.
Meanwhile Mrs Clark is looking
forward to the end of the first
trimester of her pregnancy when
she can stop taking hormone
medication and let her placenta
care for the growing baby.
“It has not fully sunk in yet,” she
says. “We are focusing on settling
into routine and daily life and going
back to work.”
Mr Clark is combining his work
with his final year of quantity
surveyor studies while Mrs Clark
works as a legal receptionist.
The Clarks were originally
determined to pursue their dream
of conceiving a child in New
Zealand rather than the USA. But,
after a $20,000 spend, their efforts
came to nought.
So reluctantly they decided that
as a last resort they should head
to the USA where they had found
a specialist at the Nashville centre
who boasted an 86 per cent success
rate. They left on January 10, having
also found a proven donor aged 28.
The donor produced 40 eggs
and the Clarks shared 20 of them
with another anonymous childless
couple. Of the 20 eggs eight
embryos resulted. One of two
was successfully implanted. The
remaining six embryos are in frozen
storage ready for when the couple
decides to return to the USA to have
a brother or sister for their current
child waiting in the wings.
In the meantime Mrs Clark’s
pregnancy is being overseen by the
Repromed clinic in Remuera.
Their message to other Kiwi
childless couples is to consider
alternative places in the USA, such
as Nashville rather than the more
expensive West Coast clinics in San
Diego and San Francisco.
Their treatment came at a $30,000
cost compared with about $50,000
at the West Coast centres.
“It’s important for people to know
that our clinic gave us the option
of a shared cycle which means we
shared the cost of the donor’s drugs
and other treatment, Mrs Clark says.
While the USA cost is higher
than in New Zealand Mr Clark says
the success rate, along with the
care, protocols, procedure and
medications is different.,
“In my opinion it was money well
spent. In New Zealand there is only
a 50/50 chance. To me it’s a no-
brainer. If people get the chance,
do it.”
Baby Clark is due on October 11
and, while reluctant to know the
sex, Mr Clark admits it will probably
be a compromise with his wife who
can’t wait to devise colour schemes
for the nursery.
They’re rumoured to serve the best
spare ribs in the country.
Lone Star, the restaurant and
cafe chain, will open in July at the
Botany Town Centre.
Located on level one, next to
Hoyts cinema, the 225-seater will
have a special deck for punters to
enjoy an alfresco meal.
Franchisee Dean Curlew, who
comes from a hospitality and
IT background, says that the
restaurant has always been a hot
favourite with his family.
“My children like the food so
much. My wife and I love the food
too. Lone Star has always been our
first choice— we all unanimously
agree on the food. So I decided to
get the franchise for it,” he says.
Having taken up a couple of
tenancies on the level one, the
spacious restaurant is one of the
bigger Lone Star’s in the country.
The virus – released via email
– resulted in the 24 hour delay
in printing the companies
newspapers.
The company notified
police regarding the attack
by ‘ransomware’ – a malicious
campaign that demands
payment in bitcoin to unlock
user computers. The Guardian
in the UK the previous week
reported that a number of major
news websites had seen adverts
similarly hijacked. The attack,
which was targeted at US users,
hit websites including the New
York Times, the BBC, AOL and the
NFL over the weekend. Combined,
the targeted sites have traffic
in the billions of visitors. The
malware was delivered through
multiple ad networks, and used
a number of vulnerabilities,
including a recently-patched
flaw in Microsoft’s former Flash
competitor Silverlight, which
was discontinued in 2013, the
Guardian said.
iVF treatMent
Baby on the way after US visit
The Clarks have returned from the USA satisfied that they did everything they possibly could to make a baby happen in
New Zealand before opting for an IVF clinic in Nashville, Tennessee.
Times photo Marianne Kelly
ransoM
Computer virus hits Times
The Times computer systems were taken
down on Wednesday last week after a
computer virus struck its servers
opening
Lone Star coming to town
The family that loves Lone Star cuisine. Dean Curlew with Andrea, Amelie,
Sophia and Harper.
Photo supplied